Startup Employee Handbook Template

Cadence

Internal · v2026.2
Confidential to the team

The Company Handbook

How we
build,
together.

The operating manual for life at Cadence — what we value, how we work, what you're owed, and how we grow. Read it once, then keep it close.

Remote-first Async by default Real ownership Recharge, don't burn out

Company

Cadence Labs, Inc.

Team

38 people, 11 time zones

Founded

2023 · San Francisco

00

Start here

A note before you read

Welcome to Cadence. We're really glad you said yes.

We started Cadence in 2023 because we'd spent years watching great teams drown in noise — endless meetings, scattered context, work that never quite added up. We're building the connective tissue for how modern teams stay in sync without grinding each other down. That mission only works if we live it ourselves.

This handbook is how we try. It isn't a rulebook and it isn't legal boilerplate dressed up as culture. It's a set of shared agreements — the defaults we reach for when no one is watching and no one told us what to do. Most of what makes a company good never fits in a document. But the parts that can be written down, we've written down here, as honestly as we know how.

You'll notice we ask for a lot: high standards, real ownership, blunt-but-kind honesty. In return we mean to give a lot back — meaningful equity, genuine flexibility, and the trust to do your best work without someone hovering. That trade is the whole deal.

If something in here feels wrong, outdated, or just off — tell us. The best version of this handbook is one the team keeps rewriting.

— P&R

Priya Nadar & Reuben Okafor

Co-founders, Cadence Labs

How to read this doc

• It's organized front-to-back, but jump to what you need — sections stand alone.
• Anything time-sensitive (benefits enrollment, equity windows) is also pinned in Notion, which always wins if the two disagree.
• "We" means the whole team, not "management." There isn't much of a them-and-us here.
• Comments welcome any time at handbook@cadencelabs.com — we review them every quarter.

01

The heart of it

Values & culture

These five aren't poster slogans. They're the behaviors we hire for, promote on, and occasionally part ways over. When two good options compete, these break the tie.

01

Default to ownership

If you see it, it's yours until it's solved or clearly handed off. We don't wait for permission to fix what's broken, and we don't drop things at the first sign of friction. Ownership isn't having every answer — it's being on the hook for finding one.

In practice: You flag the bug in a repo you don't own, then open the PR.

02

Write it down

A decision that lives only in someone's head doesn't scale across 11 time zones. We think in docs, decide in docs, and leave a trail so the next person doesn't have to reconstruct the reasoning. Clear writing is clear thinking made visible.

In practice: Every meaningful call ships with a one-paragraph "why" in Notion.

03

Blunt, but kind

We say the true thing early, even when it's awkward — and we say it because we assume the other person can handle it and wants to get better. Candor without care is just cruelty; care without candor is just avoidance. We aim for both at once.

In practice: "This direction is wrong, here's why" in review — not in DMs afterward.

04

Ship to learn

We'd rather put a real thing in front of real users than polish a guess. Small, reversible bets beat big, perfect plans almost every time. Finished and improving wins over flawless and theoretical.

In practice: Behind a flag, to 5% of accounts, by Friday — then iterate.

05

Protect the team's energy

This is a marathon. We guard each other's focus time, notice when someone's underwater, and treat rest as a performance input, not a reward. The work is better when the people doing it aren't running on fumes.

In practice: You take the recharge week — and you cover for someone taking theirs.

02

Operating system

How we work

We're remote-first and async by default. Synchronous time is a scarce, expensive resource — we spend it on the things that genuinely need it and protect the rest of the day for deep work.

The defaults

Remote-first

Work from wherever you do your best work. We have hubs in SF and Lisbon, but no one is required to be in them. Decisions never happen in a hallway someone can't reach.

Overlap window

Be reachable 9am–1pm Pacific, four days a week. Outside that, shape your day however suits you — early, late, split, whatever ships the work.

Async first

If it can be a doc, a Loom, or a thread, it shouldn't be a meeting. Threads get a reply within one working day, not one working hour.

Meeting hygiene

No agenda, no meeting — it's fine to decline one without it. We keep them to 25 or 50 minutes, and Wednesdays are company-wide no-meeting days.

Focus is sacred

A status of "heads down" means heads down. Reserve real-time pings for things that are genuinely on fire.

Where the work lives

Notion Source of truth

Docs, decisions, specs, and this handbook. If it isn't written in Notion, it didn't happen.

Slack Async chat

Day-to-day comms. Public channels by default; DMs are for things that are actually private.

Linear Execution

Every piece of work is a tracked issue with one owner. No silent side-quests.

Loom & Tuple High-bandwidth

Loom for walkthroughs and feedback; Tuple when two people genuinely need to pair.

Operating principle

Optimize for the person reading this six months from now in a time zone you'll never meet. Context written down is context multiplied; context in your head is context lost.

03

You own a piece

Ownership & equity

Everyone at Cadence gets equity. You're not just an employee — you're an owner, and we want you to understand what that actually means, in plain language.

The basics, plainly

What you get

Incentive stock options (ISOs) — the right to buy shares later at today's price (your "strike price"). If Cadence grows, that gap becomes real value.

Vesting

Four years, with a one-year cliff. Nothing vests in month eleven; 25% vests at month twelve; the rest accrues monthly after that.

Refresh grants

We grant additional options at promotion and on a rolling basis from year three, so your ownership keeps growing as you do.

Exercise window

If you leave, you have 10 years to exercise vested options — not the usual 90 days. We don't think people should lose what they earned because life moved on.

Transparency

Your grant, strike price, vesting schedule, and current 409A are all in Carta. We hold an "equity 101" session every quarter — bring any question, nothing is too basic.

Honest caveat

Startup equity is a real upside and a real gamble. It is not salary, and it isn't guaranteed to be worth anything. We'll always tell you what we know and never oversell what we don't. Talk to a tax advisor before exercising — early exercise and 83(b) elections have deadlines that bite.

04

How we pay

Compensation philosophy

We'd rather pay fairly and explain how than negotiate hard and stay quiet. Our goal is for you to never have to wonder whether you're being treated squarely.

Principles

Benchmarked

We target the 75th percentile of San Francisco market rates for your role and level, regardless of where you live. No geo-discounting.

Transparent bands

Every role has a published salary band and leveling rubric, visible to the whole company in Notion. You can see what the level above you pays.

No haggling

We make our best offer up front rather than rewarding whoever negotiates hardest. Same level, same band — full stop.

Annual review

Compensation is reviewed every January against fresh market data and your level. Raises follow leveling, not tenure alone.

Pay target

75th

Percentile of SF market, location-independent

Review cadence

Annual

Plus off-cycle adjustments at promotion

Bands

Open

Every level published company-wide

We don't run individual cash bonuses — they tend to distort the wrong behaviors. Instead, value flows back to you through salary that tracks the market and equity that grows with the company. If we win, everyone who built it wins.

05

Rest is a feature

Time off & recharge

Our PTO is unlimited — which only works if people actually take it. So we've built in floors and rituals to make sure "unlimited" never quietly becomes "none."

Minimum, not maximum

20 days

The floor everyone is expected to take each year

Company recharge

1 wk

The whole company logs off the first week of July — together

Sick & mental health

∞

Separate from PTO. Rest when you're unwell, no forms

How it works

Booking

Drop it in the team calendar and give a heads-up in Slack. Under three days needs no approval; a week or more, just loop your lead early so coverage is easy.

The 20-day floor

If you're tracking under 20 days by October, your manager will gently push you to plan more. Taking time off is part of doing the job well.

Truly off

Off means off. We don't expect Slack replies on vacation, and we cover for each other so no one comes back to a pile-up.

Parental leave

16 weeks fully paid for all new parents, birth or adoption, with a phased ramp back. Your equity keeps vesting throughout.

Sabbatical

At five years, a fully-paid four-week sabbatical on top of PTO. Go build something, walk somewhere far, or do nothing at all.

06

The supporting cast

Benefits & perks

We spend on the things that compound — your health, your growth, and your setup — and skip the gimmicks. No ping-pong table you'll never use; real money toward a real working life.

$2,000

Home-office stipend

One-time, to build a setup that works — desk, chair, monitor. Plus $50/mo toward internet and utilities.

$1,500

Annual learning budget

Courses, books, conferences, coaching — anything that makes you better at your craft. No pre-approval under $300.

$1,200

Wellness allowance

Per year toward therapy, fitness, childcare — whatever keeps you well. Spend it how it helps you most.

100%

Health, dental & vision

Premiums fully covered for you and 75% for dependents. Top-tier plans, no Cadence markup.

4%

401(k) match

Dollar-for-dollar up to 4% of salary, vested immediately. Free money — take it.

2×/yr

Team offsites

We fly the whole company together twice a year to plan, build, and actually meet the people behind the avatars.

How to claim

Stipends and allowances are reimbursed through Ramp — snap the receipt, tag the budget, done. Most land in your account within 48 hours. When something's ambiguous, spend like it's your own money and ask if you're unsure.

07

How we talk

Communication norms

Async, distributed work lives or dies on how we communicate. A few shared habits keep us fast without making anyone feel they have to be online at midnight.

Do

• Write the context once, in public, so nobody has to ask twice.
• Assume good intent; tone is hard to read in text.
• Use threads to keep channels readable.
• Over-communicate timelines and blockers early.
• Record a Loom when text would take ten paragraphs.

Don't

• Expect instant replies, or apologize for not giving them.
• Make decisions in DMs that affect the wider team.
• Send "you free?" with no context — just ask the thing.
• Mistake being online for being productive.
• Let a hard conversation rot into passive-aggression.

Response expectations

Slack thread

Within one working day. If it's urgent, say so explicitly — and that should be rare.

@here / @channel

Reserved for genuinely time-sensitive, whole-group news. Misuse erodes the signal for everyone.

Doc comment

Within two working days. Resolve threads once addressed so the doc stays clean.

After hours & PTO

No expectation to respond, ever. Schedule-send your late-night thoughts for the morning.

08

Getting better

Performance & growth

Feedback shouldn't be a surprise that arrives once a year. We aim for a steady, low-drama rhythm so you always roughly know where you stand and what's next.

The rhythm

Weekly

1:1 with your manager

A 30-minute conversation about your work, blockers, and how you're doing. Your agenda, not a status report.

Continuous

In-the-moment feedback

Praise and course-corrections land close to the event, not banked for review season. If you're not getting enough, ask.

Twice a year

Growth review

A structured look at impact against the leveling rubric, with written peer input. Tied to growth and compensation, never to a stack rank.

As you grow

Promotion

You're promoted when you're already operating at the next level, not as a reward for waiting. The rubric is public, so the bar is never a mystery.

If things aren't working

We don't do silent stack-ranking or surprise terminations. If performance is genuinely off-track, you'll hear it directly and early, with a concrete, supported plan to turn it around. No one finds out their job is at risk on the day it ends.

09

Brief, but real

The legal-but-important stuff

We keep this short on purpose. It still matters — these are the ground rules that protect you, your teammates, and the company. The full policies live in Rippling; this is the human summary.

At-will employment

Employment is at-will: either of us can end it at any time, with or without cause. Nothing in this handbook is a contract or a promise of continued employment.

Equal opportunity

We hire, pay, and promote without regard to race, gender, age, religion, disability, orientation, or anything else irrelevant to the work. Discrimination has no home here.

Anti-harassment

Harassment of any kind is a fireable offense. Report concerns to your manager, People Ops, or anonymously via our third-party line — every report is taken seriously and handled discreetly.

Code of conduct

Treat people with respect, assume good faith, and represent Cadence honestly. Bring problems forward early — covering things up is the only true firing-level mistake.

Confidentiality & IP

Customer data and company secrets stay inside the company. Work you create in your role belongs to Cadence, per the agreement you signed on day one.

Security basics

Use the password manager, enable 2FA everywhere, lock your laptop, and never put customer data anywhere unsanctioned. Report a lost device or suspected breach to #security immediately — speed beats blame.

Outside work & conflicts

Side projects are fine as long as they don't compete with us or use our resources. If something might be a conflict, just disclose it — early and honestly.

Expenses

Spend company money like it's your own. Reasonable, work-related, documented in Ramp. When in doubt, ask first rather than after.

One last thing

Now go do
the best work
of your life.

This handbook is a starting point, not the final word. The culture isn't on this page — it's in how you and everyone around you choose to show up tomorrow. We can't wait to build it with you.

Read & understood

Date

Cadence Labs, Inc. handbook@cadencelabs.com v2026.2